EPA Changes The Borders Of Wyoming; Governor Appeals Decision

Posted by Patch W. Adams on Thursday, January 9, 2014, 7:25 PM

Governor Mead at Capitol for a Day event 2013 (Picture from soswy.state.wy.us)

Just when you think that the EPA can’t get any more out of control, it decides to change the border of a state.

According to an article on Trib.com, the EPA overturned a 1905 Federal Law by expanding the Wind River Indian Reservation:

CHEYENNE — Gov. Matt Mead’s administration is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to freeze implementation of its recent decision that more than 1 million acres around Riverton remains legally Indian Country.

Wyoming Attorney General Peter Michael wrote Monday to national EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Regional Administrator Shawn McGrath in Denver asking them to reconsider the agency’s decision.

The EPA ruled last month that a 1905 federal law opening part of the Wind River Indian Reservation to settlement by non-Indians didn’t extinguish the land’s reservation status.

The EPA addressed the reservation boundary issue in its decision last month that granted an application from the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes. The tribes had applied to have the reservation treated as a separate state under the federal Clean Air Act.

Wyoming’s Governor, Matt Mead, says he will fight the decision and is concerned that a Federal Agency assumes it has the power to alter a state’s boundaries:

Mead has pledged to challenge the EPA decision in federal court. The state’s request to the EPA to halt implementation of its decision could help the state if it later asks the court to block the agency’s decision while the appeal plays out.

“My deep concern is about an administrative agency of the federal government altering a state’s boundary and going against over 100 years of history and law,” Mead said. “This should be a concern to all citizens because, if the EPA can unilaterally take land away from a state, where will it stop?”

If you agree with the decision or not, the EPA does not have the power to adjust the borders of a state. The proper places for such a decision are either in the legislative branch or the judicial branch. To me this is an obvious abuse of a power the EPA wrongly assumes it has…